Happy Christmas from Focus 1972

Liner notes 7 Bojoura

These liner notes by Thijs van Leer originally appeared on the 1970 album The Beauty of Bojoura and the 1972 album Jesus Christ Superstar - the best of Bojoura, which he had a large part in assembling

Asked to think up the title for this new Bojoura album, I couldn't but suggest to entitle it "The Beauty of Bojoura", impressed as I am by her inward as well as her outward beauty. In addition to a talent for singing she also possesses a fine feeling for languages. This not only manifests itself in her fluency when speaking such languages as French, German, English, Bulgarian or Dutch, but also in the remarkable richness of metaphor in the lyrics she writes. This figurative language has been a great inspiration to me when setting a handful of her poems to music. On the other hand, Bo and I have equally enjoyed doing our versions of songs from the repertoire of such groups and singers as Peter, Paul & Mary, the Doors, the Rolling Stones, Tim Hardin and Tom Paxton.

Bojoura's inward beauty as well as her outward beauty impress me quite a lot.

In addition to a talent for singing she also possesses a fine feeling for languages. This not only manifests itself in her fluency when speaking such languages as French, German, English, Bulgarian or Dutch, but also in the remarkable richness of metaphor in the lyrics she writes.

The figurative language has been a great inspiration to me when setting some of her poems to music. On the other hand, Bo and I have equally enjoyed doing our versions of the hit songs from the Rock Opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" and songs from the repertoire of such groups and singers as Peter, Paul & Mary, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Tim Hardin, Tom Paxton, Jo Stafford and Gordon Lightfoot.

Liner Notes 2 Introspection

These liner notes were penned by the Dutch TV presenter Willem Duys for the van Leer solo album Introspection, which came out in 1972

It seems unfair that some people are so much more talented than others. THIJS VAN LEER is one of those more.than usually gifted musicians. He could have been a concert pianist for instance. Born the last day of March 1948, he caressed the keys when still the tiniest of toddlers, started studying seriously when he was all of three years old and became the often praised pupil of locally famous pianists like Maria Stroo and Gerard Hengeveld. When he was thirteen, he became interested in jazz and pretty soon played fine harmonic variations on "Stella by Starlight" and other beautiful ballads.

Van Leer Senior, however, was not very happy to see a possible Mozart gradually becoming a probable Bill Evans. Being an extraordinary flute player himself, he started to teach young Thijs the intricates of this old and difficult instrument.

Meanwhile, the musical prodigy did very wekk in school. He finished his Gymnasium-studies in record time and even proved to have more arrows to hus cultural bow than people had expected: during an inter-scholar match, he proved himself and exciting actor in Shakespeare, did some declamation of his own poetry, played jazz and flute abd finally sang a song he had just composed in true Richard Rodgers-style: music and lyrics. It was then that I had the fortune to discover Thijs van Leer and I took him to his first recording session in 1967. This resulted in a single nobody took notice of. I also introduced van Leer to Ramses Shaffy, who was just forming a new cabaret group and soon young Thijs made his professional debut on stages all over the country.

Meanwhile he studied the History of Art, took lessons in harmony and counterpoint at the Amsterdam Conservatory and painted many pictures. Success had to come one way or another. It came when he formed his own group with equally talentes Jan Akkerman, a guitar player of great virtuosity and this group, called FOCUS, has now won prizes in Festivals all over Eurpe, as well as the 1971 Edison Award, apart from being a top-selling bunch of record makers.

This is the first solo LP Thijs van Leer has made. It goes back to Bach in some numbers, it shows his classical training, it proves his ability as a flute player. It also shows his remarkable sense of style and form. Whether you hear Fauré's lovely Pavane or Van Leer's own Focus I and II, you will be thrilled by the whole conception and reakisation of his music.

A word of praise should be printed for Rogier van Otterloo, who wrote so many fine arrangements for Rita Reys and others and who came up this time (being a pianist and flute player himself) with truly lush orchestral backgrounds, in which a prominent part is played, or rather sung, by young soprano Letty de Jong.

So there it is: an LP featuring a still very young but unusually gifted performer named Thijs van Leer, whose name you're bound to hear many times in the future and whose kind of music should appeal to anyone with good ears and taste.

Elspeth of Nottingham

Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers!

Focus 3

Carnival Fugue

Sylvia

Love Remembered

Round goes the gossip

Focus Live 04

An early recording for the BBC exists from the end of 1972 (November or December 12) or the beginning of 1973 (some time in January). It is sometimes known as The sky will fall on London tonight.

The compere is Bob Harris who introduces the band by saying "Hello, welcome again to another concert programme. My name's Bob Harris and, uh, tonight really does promise to be a special programme I think. It's, uh, the time of the season for saying about various bands, well, this is going to be their year and, uh, I think that statement really does apply to our guest band tonight. I've, uh, not been so much excited about a band, hearing them for the first time, as I was when I heard Moving Waves a little while ago, for a very, very long time and, uh, it's gonna be a special evening tonight, I think. Having said all that, please welcome Focus." The crowd cheer and we are straight into a 21 minute version of Anonymous 2 complete with bass and drum breaks and featuring Van Leer not only on the organ and flute but also on the electric piano.

"Remarkable playing" comments Harris, names the track and then introduces the band. He refers to their "brightest hope" award and that two albums are in the charts by this time and gives thanks on the band's behalf. he then says thank you to those who sent him eight different copies of the first album when he mentioned on air some weeks before that he did not have it. This leads into a version of Focus 1. On the recording this is immediately followed by the by now familiar trio of Focus 3, AQQA and Focus 2.

"It really is a joy to sit and listen and to watch them play" says Harris naming the track and their sources.

We finish off with a storming Hocus Pocus, very similar in style to the Rainbow version with yodelling antics and introductions, etc. It clocks in at around 7:23.

Focus Live 03

As we come into 1972 and the beginnings of Focus's international fame there are two more recordings about from Holland plus, significantly, one, possibly two, others, recorded in England.

Of the Dutch recordings, one is from Friday March 31 at the Spinoza Lyceum in Amsterdam. This features what would be an oft repeated running order familiar from the later Rainbow album - Focus 3/AQQA (both then unreleased) with Focus 2 (now including Van Leer's meandering organ intro). These are followed by the long track Anonymous 2 with its bass and drum breaks.

The other (undated) recording is of a performance in a student centre in Wageningen. In addition to the four initial tracks played in Amsterdam there is a recording of Focus 1 before Anonymous 2 and a long version of Eruption plus versions of the St Anthony Chorale (where Van Leer begins by singing in operatic style) and House of the King. The St Anthony element seems to be looking back to the Ramses Shaffy era as much as looking forward to Hamburger Concerto. The version of Eruption includes some quite eclectic elements, including a series of so called 'Bridges' where, after a fairly long ensemble piece including elements from his solo piece Fresh Air, Akkerman is left to solo on electric guitar. Some of this is quite remarkable stuff. He appears to draw on a number of pieces that can be found on his then current and sometimes later albums. After one storming section that anticipates his Prelude:Friends Always there is a brief rendition of Andante Sostenuto. We come back to more familiar Eruption territory via Van Leer's organ in quite Bartokian mode before Van Der Linden takes his turn with a six minute drum solo. This is followed by more Bartok from the band to close.

Focus also did the Pinkpop Festival again at the end of May 1972 and the Great Western Express Festival in Bardney, Lincolnshire (Sunday May 28). The very first Focus gig in England was in 1972, and may have been to 60 people somewhere in Huddersfield. There were also free gigs at the famous Marquee Club in London (Wednesday March 8, Thursday June 1, Friday August 11). The first of the recordings from England is Saturday August 12 1972 at the famous Reading Festival that was so important a break for the band in Britain. Again we have the four track sequence mentioned already. Then comes this time a rather short extract from Eruption and this time the Hocus Pocus/Sylvia/Hocus Pocus (reprise) sequence is preserved.

Recordings also exist of The Melody Maker Poll Winners Concert at the Oval Cricket Ground on Saturday September 30, 1972, when Akkerman and Van Der Linden jammed with the bassist Jack Bruce doing Powerhouse Sod. Focus also opened the show and (possibly) Bert Ruiter and Pierre Van Der Linden backed Rory Gallagher at one point.

Other gigs in 1972 include - in Holland (January 1 Wageningen, June 30 a festival in Rotterdam, August 6 Terborg) and their first tour of England and Wales - a series of around 30 gigs between October 13 and November 18 (as far west as Swansea, as far north as Newcastle, as far easy as Ipswich adn a sfar south as Southampton and Plymouth).

The other recording that possibly comes from 1972 is a BBC recording introduced by whispering Bob Harris, an early champion of the group. We will consider this recording separately.

Track by track 23 Anonymus 2

Archive number: 23

Title: Anonymus 2

Main Album: Focus 3

Track number: 8 (CD version, 7 on the LP)

Genre: Progressive Rock Instrumental

Studio: Olympic Studios 'B', 117 Church Road, Barnes, London SW13 9HL

Length: 26' 19”

Composer: Thijs van Leer, Jan Akkerman, Pierre van der Linden

Musicians: Jan Akkerman – Electric guitars (Gibson Les Paul Customs?); Thijs van Leer – Hammond organ, Flute; Bert Ruiter - Bass; Pierre van der Linden – Drums

Producer: Mike Vernon

Engineer: George Chkiantz

Label: LP – Imperial, Polydor, Sire CD – EMI-Bovema, IRS, Red Bullet Date of recording/release: July 1972/November 1972 CD - 1988, 1993, 2001

Alternative version: This is a development of the track Anonymus that appeared on the first album and that can also be heard in the background on the Ramses Shaffy album Sunset Sunkiss.

Notes: The longest track Focus were ever to record (on the original vinyl it took up the whole of one side of a disc and continued on to the next side), the piece can be divided into three main parts (00:00-06:17; 06:18-19:03 and 19:04-24:46) followed by a sort of coda (24:47-26:19).

The band begin together with a staccato statement of the main theme. The guitar quickly-plucked leads. At 01:01 a rasping flute takes up the lead and is backed first by the band's fourfold repetition of an 8 or 9-note riff (modified slightly from the original one in Anonymus). The flute grows increasingly breathless until at 03:24 the organ comes in to take up the lead. At 05:23 they slip into a repeated descending riff and at 05:59 the 8-note riff is again repeated until all goes quiet. Around 06:18 a solo bass quietly takes up a slow melody that is explored alone, picking up pace from 07:41 and being joined first by a strummed or chugging electric guitar (08:12) then snares and cymbals (08:50). The bass, backed by rhythm guitar and drums, continues to build and explore these funky rhythms until the organ finally returns at 11:37 (was van leer on a toilet break?) and it is time for Akkerman, whose restrained guitar has been growing ever more sonorous, to move from rhythm to lead, which he does with aplomb. By this stage the sound is quite heavy but still melodic. It is pretty much a live presentation. At 15:19 an 'alarm style' is hinted at and at 18:33 this comes in with a strong echo as, with the help of the drums, the section is concluded at 19:03. Without a break, the 8-note riff comes in again (19:04) as we are led towards the track's long (and technically impressive) drum solo. Full band and drums alternate briefly then the solo comes in at 19:24, lasting to 23:45, when bass and organ quietly return with the riff. Lead guitar takes it on briefly at 24:10 but by 24:47 the whole thing has ground to a halt. A coda immediately follows as the band play the main theme as at the beginning. This time Akkerman is even quicker until, at 25:31-26:11, a grand reprise-style finale brings us almost to the end. The job is completed with a brief, final, abrupt and comically fast conclusion (26:12-26:19). The whole piece is mostly live and full of enthusiasm. At various points enthusiastic shouts from the band can be heard (eg 06:22, 19:13).

Track by track 22 Elspeth of Nottingham

Archive number: 22
Title: Elspeth of Nottingham
Main Album: Focus 3
Track number: 7 (CD version, 8 on the LP)
Genre: Elizabethan Instrumental
Studio: Olympic Studios 'B', 117 Church Road, Barnes, London SW13 9HL
Length: 03' 07”
Composer: Jan Akkerman (Mike Vernon gave it the title)
Musicians: Jan Akkerman – Lute; Thijs van Leer – Recorders; Pierre van der Linden – Drum
Producer: Mike Vernon
Engineer: George Chkiantz
Label: LP – Imperial, Polydor, Sire CD – EMI-Bovema, IRS, Red Bullet
Date of recording/release: July 1972/November 1972 CD - 1988, 1993, 2001
Notes: This is the first of two Focus tracks to feature Akkerman on the lute, although it does feature on some of his solo albums and was even used in live gigs of the time. This Akkerman penned piece in Elizabethan style is mainly lute but van Leer briefly adds recorders and van der Linden beats a drum at three points (01:02-01:11;01:57-02:16;02:37-02:57). The whole is enhanced throughout by Mike Vernon provided outdoor country sounds, mainly twittering birds but also a cow mooing (at the end)!
Note on the lute (from Wikipedia)
Lute can refer to any plucked string instrument with a neck and deep round back or a specific instrument from the family of European lutes. These and the Near-Eastern oud descend from a common ancestor (both words may be from Arabic al‘ud, the wood, though recent research suggests ‘ud may be Arabised Persian rud [string, stringed instrument, lute] or from Greek, Frankish or Slavonic words, meaning boat or ship). The lute is used in a great variety of instrumental music from early renaissance to late baroque. It is also an accompanying instrument, especially in vocal works. Lutenist, lutanist or lutist - Lute player. Luthier - Maker of lutes (or any string instrument). Lutes are made almost entirely of wood.
Soundboard: teardrop-shaped thin flat plate of resonant wood (usually spruce) nearly always with a single (sometimes triple) decorated soundhole under the strings (the rose). It is covered with a grille in the form of an intertwining vine or decorative knot, carved directly out of the soundboard.
Back (shell): assembled from thin strips of hardwood (maple, cherry, ebony, etc) called ribs glued edge to edge to form a deep rounded body for the instrument. There are braces inside on the soundboard to give it strength.
Neck: light wood with hardwood veneer (usually ebony) providing durability for the fretboard beneath the strings, which is mounted flush with the top.
Pegbox: before the Baroque era it was angled back from the neck at almost 90°, presumably to help hold the low-tension strings firmly against the nut, which is not traditionally glued but held in place by string pressure only.
Tuning pegs: simple hardwood pegs, somewhat tapered, held in place by friction in holes drilled through the pegbox. With such instruments choice of wood here is crucial. As the wood suffers dimensional changes through age and loss of humidity, it must as closely as possible retain a circular cross-section in order to function properly, as there are no gears or other mechanical aids for tuning. Often pegs were made from suitable fruitwoods (eg European pearwood) or similar. Matheson (c 1720) wrote that if a lute-player who lives 80 years, will spend 60 tuning. [Why Akkerman practically gave up on the lute in the end].
Belly: its geometry is relatively complex, involving a system of barring in which braces are placed perpendicular to the strings at specific lengths along the belly's overall length, the ends of which are angled quite precisely to abut the ribs on either side for structural reasons. It seems ancient builders placed bars according to whole-number ratios of the scale length and belly length. The inward bend of the soundboard ('belly scoop') is probably a deliberate adaptation by ancient builders to afford the lutenist's right hand more space between strings and soundboard. Belly thickness varies, but usually is 1.5-2 mm. Some luthiers tune the belly as they build, removing mass and adapting bracing to ensure proper sonic results. The belly is almost never finished, though a luthier may size the top with a very thin coat of shellac or glair in order to help keep it clean. The belly is joined directly to the rib, without a lining glued to the sides, although a cap and counter cap are glued to the inside and outside of the bottom end of the bowl to provide rigidity and increased gluing surface. After joining top to sides, a half-binding is usually installed around the belly's edge. It is approximately half the thickness of the belly and is usually made of a contrasting colour wood. The rebate for the half-binding must be extremely precise to avoid compromising structural integrity.
Bridge: usually of fruitwood, it is attached to the soundboard at 1/5-1/7 the belly length. It does not have a separate saddle but has holes bored into it to which the strings attach directly. Typically it is made such that it tapers in height and length, with the small end holding the trebles and the higher and wider end carrying the basses. Bridges are often colored black with carbon black in a binder, often shellac, and often have inscribed decoration. The scrolls or other decoration on the ends of lute bridges are usually integral.
Frets: made of loops of gut (or nylon) tied round the neck, they fray with use and must be replaced. A few additional partial frets of wood are usually glued to the body, to allow stopping the highest-pitched courses up to a full octave higher than the open string, though not on original instruments. Many luthiers prefer gut to nylon, as it conforms more readily to the sharp angle at the edge of the fingerboard.
Strings: historically of gut (sometimes in combination with metal) gut is till used or nylon, with metal windings on the lower-pitched strings. Gut is more authentic, though more susceptible to irregularity and pitch instability due to changes in humidity. Nylon, less authentic, offers greater tuning stability but is of course anachronistic.
Of note are the "catlines" used as basses on historical instruments. Catlines are several gut strings wound together and soaked in heavy metal solutions which increase string mass. They can be quite large in diameter by comparison with wound nylon strings for the same pitch. They produce a bass which is somewhat different in timbre from nylon basses.
The lute's strings are arranged in courses (usually 2 strings each, though the highest-pitched course usually consists of only a single string, the chanterelle). In later Baroque lutes 2 upper courses are single. The courses are numbered sequentially, counting from the highest pitched, so that the chanterelle is the first course, the next pair the second course, etc. Thus an 8-course Renaissance lute usually has 15 strings; a 13-course Baroque lute will have 24.
The courses are tuned in unison for high and intermediate pitches, but for lower pitches one of the two strings is tuned an octave higher. (The course at which this split starts changed over time.) The two strings of a course are virtually always stopped and plucked together, as if a single string, but very rarely a piece calls for the two strings of a course to be stopped and/or plucked separately. The tuning of a lute is somewhat complicated. The result of the lute's design is an instrument extremely light for its size.
Medieval lutes were 4- or 5-course instruments, plucked using a quill for a plectrum. There were several sizes, and by the end of the Renaissance, 7 different sizes (up to the great octave bass) are documented. Song accompaniment was probably the lute's primary function in the Middle Ages, but very little music securely attributable to the lute survives from the era before 1500. Medieval and early-Renaissance song accompaniments were probably mostly improvised, hence the lack of written records.
In the last few decades of the 15th century, in order to play Renaissance polyphony on a single instrument, lutenists gradually abandoned the quill in favor of plucking the instrument with the fingertips. The number of courses grew to 6 or more. The lute was the premier solo instrument of the 16th century, but continued to be used to accompany singers as well.
By the end of the Renaissance the number of courses had grown to 10. During the Baroque era it continued to grow, reaching 14 (occasionally 19). These instruments, with up to 26-35 strings, required innovations in structure. At the end of the lute's evolution the archlute, theorbo and torban had long extensions attached to the main tuning head in order to provide a greater resonating length for the bass strings, and as human fingers are too short to stop strings across a neck wide enough to hold 14 courses, the bass strings were placed outside the fretboard, and were played "open", ie without fretting/stopping them with the left hand.
Throughout the Baroque era the lute was increasingly relegated to continuo accompaniment and was eventually superseded in that role by keyboards. It fell out of use after 1800 but enjoyed a revival with the awakening of interest in historical music around 1900 and later. That revival was boosted by the 20th century early music movement. Important pioneers in lute revival were Julian Bream [an influence on Akkerman] Hans Neemann, Walter Gerwig, Suzanne Bloch and Diana Poulton.

Track by track 21 Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers!

Archive number: 21

Title: Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers!

Main Album: Focus 3

Track number: 6

Genre: Progressive Jazz Rock Instrumental

Studio: Olympic Studios 'B', 117 Church Road, Barnes, London SW13 9HL

Length: 13' 50"

Composer: Bert Ruiter, Jan Akkerman

Musicians: Jan Akkerman – Electric guitars (Gibson Les Paul Customs?); Thijs van Leer – Hammond organ, Flute; Bert Ruiter - Bass; Pierre van der  Linden – Drums (brushes and sticks)

Producer: Mike Vernon

Engineer: George Chkiantz

Label: LP – Imperial, Polydor, Sire CD – EMI-Bovema, IRS, Red Bullet Date of recording/release: July 1972/November 1972 CD - 1988, 1993, 2001

Alternative version: A live version can be heard on the Rainbow album. Akkerman has played it live. Notes: Jan Akkerman apparently had a sound stage built in the studio for Focus 3 and once again here is a track that chiefly has a very live sound, though there are some overdubs. The song was being played by Focus from Ruiter's arrival and he gets a credit. The idea of musical calls and responses is a common one in jazz and it forms the basis of much of the Focus repertoire. Here, slightly differently, the response or answer precedes the call or question. The opening section (00:00-01:21) begins with Ruiter's bass riff, which gives the track its initial impetus. Bass and guitar play in unison backed by snare, cymbals and a struck high hat. From 00:19 a swelling Hammond vibrato pans out across the sound spectrum. At 00:37 the guitar cuts in to form a bridge to the point where the Hammond takes up the lead (00:47) until replaced again by a jazzy guitar (01:21). The section is brought to a close by four decisive chords. This first section is then partly repeated but with no lead organ and a longer guitar-led section that ends again with the decisive chords plus a thrice-repeated riff or scale and a repeated drum beat (01:22-02:51). A short third section (02:52-03:58) is led first by the guitar, now in plaintive mood and dubbed over the existing track which also features guitar, and then (from 03:27) by the organ. At 03:59 a sombre and mysterious mood is introduced and we come to a lengthy flute-led section (03:59-08:06). Again there is evidence of some overdubbing to achieve this. The guitar provides a subtle undercurrent until (around 06:59) it becomes a little harder and more insistent and the atmosphere becomes less mysterious and more heavy. By 08:07 we are into a new guitar-led section that is increasingly heavy and ever wilder, with Akkerman moving up and down the fretboard with some dexterity. This lasts until around 11:25 where there is an unexpected change in the style. A final section (11:27-13:50) is then led by a weeping or 'violined' guitar. This slower section ends with a virtually solo but multi-tracked guitar riff that breaks down at the end, the one guitar letting out a final long-drawn-out note that employs feedback to sustain itself for over 20 seconds. The influence of Django Reinhardt has been observed with regard to this piece but certainly Jimi Hendrix has also had a strong influence on the guitar work too. On the original vinyl LP 5 seconds of manic laughter can be heard in the distant background after this, at the close of the second side of the album. On the CD version this is now attached to the beginning of the track that follows (Elspeth of Nottingham).

Track by track 20 Focus 3

Archive number: 20

Title: Focus 3

Main Album: Focus 3

Track number: 5

Genre: Jazz Rock Instrumental

Studio: Olympic Studios 'B', 117 Church Road, Barnes, London SW13 9HL

Length: 06' 04"

Composer: Thijs van Leer

Musicians: Jan Akkerman – Electric guitars (Gibson Les Paul Customs?); Thijs van Leer – Hammond organ; Bert Ruiter - Bass; Pierre van der Linden – Drums (chiefly using brushes)

Producer: Mike Vernon

Engineer: George Chkiantz

Label: LP – Imperial, Polydor, Sire CD – Capitol, EMI-Bovema, IRS, Red Bullet, JVC Victor

Date of recording/release: July 1972/November 1972, 1975 CD - 1988, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2004

Alternative versions: A live version appears on Focus at the Rainbow. Van Leer also rearranged the track for the second Introspection album. Akkerman has featured it in his live act. All the Focus tracks were re-recorded for the fiftieth anniversary album. Outkast sampled the track for their Wheels of Steel track.

Notes: This, the third in the Focus series, begins with just organ (00:00-00:18) mainly repeating the notes B, C#, D, F# (a much loved sequence). At 00:19 the bass and guitar join the organ. At 00:40 the drums join in and soon the guitar is being 'violined'. This quiet, laid back style continues, repeating the earlier material, until at 02:05 the volume rises and at 02:18 a more swinging and intense style comes in, one often compared with part of Petula Clark's Don't sleep in the subway by Tony Hatch with Jackie Trent. (Cf 00:35-00:50 on that track, where she sings “I’ve heard it all a million times before; take off your coat, my love, and close the door” and 01:44-01:58 where she sings "Goodbye means nothing when it's all for show; so why pretend you've somewhere else to go"). This is repeated, bringing us to 03:10. The band then switch back to the earlier quieter style, 03:11-05:11. This slowly rises, especially from about 05:00, to something of a climax at 05:11. In 05:12-05:41 high notes on the guitar play against the bass and drums in that soaring Focus style to be followed by much lower notes (05:34-05:41). The higher part is then repeated (05:42-06:04) ending on a hanging guitar note ready for the immediate succession of the next track. Once again the feel is very much a live one.

Track by track 19 Carnival Fugue

Archive number: 19

Title: Carnival Fugue

Main Album: Focus 3

Track number: 4

Genre: Jazz Rock Instrumental

Studio: Olympic Studios 'B', 117 Church Road, Barnes, London SW13 9HL

Length: 06' 04"

Composer: Thijs van Leer

Musicians: Jan Akkerman – Electric guitars (Gibson Les Paul Customs?), acoustic guitar; Thijs van Leer – Hammond organ, piano, piccolo; Bert Ruiter - Bass; Pierre Van Der Linden – Drums

Producer: Mike Vernon

Engineer: George Chkiantz Label: LP – Imperial, Polydor, Sire CD – Capitol, EMI-Bovema, IRS, Red Bullet, JVC Victor

Date of recording/release: July 1972/November 1972, 1975 CD - 1988, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2004

Alternative version: There does not appear to be a different version of this anywhere but some sections were later used by van Leer in quite a different (more obviously fugal) way on the 1981 Pedal Point album Dona Nobis Pacem (in the first Sanctus).

Notes: The piece can be divided into four sections. The first (00:00-01:30) is slow and solemn and features piano, electric guitar and very sparing drum fills using floor toms and cymbals. The piece begins just with piano but is complimented by laid back, meandering guitar lines. The music evokes the lack of activity before a carnival march starts. There is a four second gap between the first and second section (00:31-00:34). The second section (01:35-02:55) features piano again but now with acoustic guitars from the start and (from 00:49) bass and drums. This brisker section features rising scales and evokes perhaps the readying of carnival marchers. This leads into a third even quicker, more jazzy (or contrapuntal) transitional section (02:56-03:29) on the same instruments. By now the whole troupe is more than ready for the off and the final section is a lively 'carnival' style one, Caribbean perhaps, in its feel (03:30-06:04). It features piccolo, organ, electric guitar, bass and drums. An infectious joy permeates as the music eventually fades, the revellers, as it were, passing into the distance. Overdubbing has been used to enhance the piccolo lines and contrasting guitar lines come from the two channels at certain points.

A note on the term fugue (from Wikipedia) The English term fugue originates in the 16th Century and is from French or Italian fuga, which itself is from Latin and is related to both fugere (to flee) and fugare (to chase). The adjectival form is fugal. Variants include fughetta (lit a small fugue) and fugato (passage in fugal style within another work that is not a fugue). In music, a fugue is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred to as "voices", irrespective of whether the work is vocal or not. In the Middle Ages, the term was widely used to denote any works in canonic style; by the Renaissance, it came to denote specifically imitative works. Since the 17th Century the term has described what is commonly regarded as the most fully developed procedure of imitative counterpoint. A fugue opens with one main theme (subject) which then sounds successively in each voice in imitation; when each voice has entered, the exposition is complete; usually this is followed by a connecting passage (episode) developed from previously heard material; further "entries" of the subject then are heard in related keys. Episodes and entries are usually alternated until the "final entry" of the subject, by which point the music has returned to the opening key, or tonic, which is often followed by closing material, the coda. In this sense, fugue is a style of composition, rather than a fixed structure. Though there are certain established practices, in writing the exposition for example, composers approach the style with varying degrees of freedom and individuality. The form evolved from several earlier types of contrapuntal compositions, such as imitative ricercars, capriccios, canzonas and fantasias. Middle and late Baroque composers such as Buxtehude (1637–1707) and Pachelbel (1653–1706) contributed greatly to the development of the fugue, and the form reached ultimate maturity in the works of Bach (1685–1750). With the decline of sophisticated contrapuntal styles at the end of the baroque period, the fugue's popularity as a compositional style waned, eventually giving way to Sonata form. Nevertheless, composers from the 1750s to the present day continue to write and study fugue for various purposes; they appear in the works of Mozart (eg Kyrie Eleison, Requiem in D min) and Beethoven (eg end of Credo, Missa Solemnis) and composers such as Reicha (1770–1836) and Shostakovich (1906–1975) wrote cycles of fugues.

Track by track 18 Love Remembered

Archive number: 18

Title: Love Remembered

Main Album: Focus 3 (also a single in 1972)

Track number: 2

Genre: Classical/Progressive Rock Instrumental

Studio: Olympic Studios 'B', 117 Church Road, Barnes, London SW13 9HL

Length: 2' 45”

Composer: Jan Akkerman

Musicians: Jan Akkerman – Acoustic guitars; Thijs van Leer – Flute, Synthesizer, Voice; Bert Ruiter - Bass; Pierre van der Linden – Drums

Producer: Mike Vernon

Engineer: George Chkiantz

Label: LP – Imperial, Polydor, Sire CD – Capitol, EMI-Bovema, IRS, Red Bullet , JVC Victor

Date of recording/release: July 1972/November 1972, 1975 CD - 1988, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2004

Alternative version: A version by Toots Thielemans appeared subsequently and Akkerman himself later re-recorded the track in a very laid back style with Claus Ogerman and his orchestra (Aranjuez).

Notes: This beautiful piece opens with acoustic guitars that continue throughout the piece. Some seconds in, the flute takes up the main theme, backed by a high wind-like flute provided by a studio synthesizer. At 01:19 two beats from the drums, which were in the background until this point signal a new phase and van Leer's voice and more cymbals can be heard. The song builds from here with a great yearning, breaking down a little around 01:58 but finding some sort of resolve by 02:16 and returning to the opening style. We end with an extended flute note followed by a muted final chord from a guitar so leaving way on the album for the opening chords of Sylvia, the next track.

Track by track 17 Round goes the gossip

Archive number: 17

Title: Round goes the gossip

Main Album: Focus 3

Track number: 1

Genre: Jazz Rock Instrumental/Vocal

Studio: Olympic Studios 'B', 117 Church Road, Barnes, London SW13 9HL

Length: 5' 12"

Composer: Thijs van Leer

Musicians: Jan Akkerman – Electric guitars (Gibson Les Paul Customs?); Thijs van Leer – Hammond organ, Vocals, Speaking voice; Bert Ruiter - Bass; Pierre van der Linden – Drums; Mike Vernon, George Chkiantz - Vocals

Producer: Mike Vernon

Engineer: George Chkiantz

Label: LP – Imperial, Polydor, Sire CD – Capitol, EMI-Bovema, IRS, Red Bullet , JVC Victor

Date of recording/release: July 1972/November 1972, 1975 CD - 1988, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2004

Notes: This pretty unique offering begins with drums (00:00-00:08). The band then come in (00:17-00:35) followed by a multi-tracked and reverbed chant of the lyric 'Round goes the gossip' (00:36-00:51). Band and vocal alternate (00:52-01:02; 01:03-01:19; 01:20-01:29) until a quieter section, beginning at 01:30, where (01:40-02:31) appropriate words from Virgil's Aeneid (Book 4 lines 173-177), as below, are intoned in Latin by van Leer. The words are again multi-tracked and have strong reverb. The drums then bring in the chanted vocal again (02:32-02:54) to be followed by another instrumental break on guitar and organ with the rhythm section (02:55-03:14). The lyric is then given out just once (03:15-03:18) and a change of pace follows with a stop, start section (03:19-04:22) that includes some furious jazz guitar bringing us to a final section (04:23-05:12) where the vocal reasserts itself in an increasingly disjointed and manic way until a fade beginning around 4:42. The Latin words are

Extemplo libyae magnas it fama per urbes, Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum. Mobilitate viget virisque adquirit eundo; Parva metu primo, mox sese attollit in auras. Ingrediturque solo et caput inter nubila condit.

[Forthwith rumour runs through Libya's great cities - Rumour of all evils the most swift. Speed lends her strength, and she wins vigour as she goes; Small at first through fear, soon she mounts up to heaven, And walks the ground with head hidden in the clouds.]

Note on the Aeneid (from Wikipedia)

The Aeneid is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st Century BC (29-19 BC). It tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy and became ancestor to the Romans. It is written in dactylic hexameter. The poem's first 6 books (of 12) tell of Aeneas' wanderings from Troy to Italy. The second half treats the Trojans' ultimately victorious war against the Latins, under whose name Aeneas and his Trojan followers are destined to be subsumed. The hero Aeneas was already known to Graeco-Roman legend and myth, having been a character in the Iliad. Virgil took the disconnected tales of his wanderings, his vague association with Rome's foundation and a personage of no fixed characteristics other than a scrupulous piety, and fashioned this into a compelling founding myth or nationalist epic that at once tied Rome to the legends of Troy, glorified traditional Roman virtues and legitimised the Julio-Claudian dynasty as descendants of the founders, heroes and gods of Rome and Troy.

Track by track 16 Sylvia

Archive number: 16

Title: Sylvia

Main Album: Focus 3 (also a single in 1972 and 1973)

Track number: 3

Genre: Jazz Rock Instrumental

Studio: Olympic Studios 'B', 117 Church Road, Barnes, London SW13 9HL

Length: 03' 24"

Composer: Thijs van Leer

Musicians: Jan Akkerman – Electric guitars (Gibson Les Paul Customs?); Thijs van Leer – Hammond organ, Voice; Bert Ruiter - Bass; Pierre Van Der Linden – Drums

Producer: Mike Vernon

Engineer: George Chkiantz

Label: LP – Imperial, Polydor, Sire CD – Capitol, EMI-Bovema, IRS, Red Bullet, JVC Victor

Date of recording/release: July 1972/November 1972, 1975 CD - 1988, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2004

Alternative version: A live version appears on the Rainbow album. Van Leer has done acoustic versions (Hommage aan Rogier van Otterloo, etc). Akkerman likes to do what he calls Sylvia's grandmother emphasising his own contribution to the original hit. There have been some covers.

Notes: Apparently this was always intended as a single and so was probably recorded before the other material for Focus 3. One of Focus's most famous tracks, still played on the radio today, it was originally written by van Leer in the late sixties for Sylvia Alberts, when both were working as backing singers for Ramses Shaffy and Liesbeth List. The original piece used a lyric by Linda van Dijk, beginning "I thought I could do everything on my own, I was always stripping the town alone" (!). Alberts did not like the track and so it was shelved until being dusted down and used by Focus in its instrumental form. The Focus track begins with that famous jazz riff on guitars, reminiscent of the work of David T Walker, Louis Shelton and Don Peake on the 1969 Jackson 5 hit I want you back. The ambience is enhanced by heavy reverb from the one channel acting as a sort of drone against the chopped chords. (This is not found on live versions, of course). The organ and bass join in (00:09) then drums (00:15). The whole opening section lasts until 00:24, when the guitar leads the band into the main theme (00:25-00:42). The chopped chords then return (00:43-00:50) to be followed once again by the guitar-led theme (00:51-01:47). At 01:09-01:12 there is a brief bridge that features again at 01:48-02:00 where it is repeated three times, accompanied by van Leer's vibrato voice. In 02:01-02:45 we visit the main theme once again (note the distinctive variation around 02:18). This leads to a false ritartando ending when the chopped chords break in for the last time (02:46-02:54) again joined first by organ and bass (02:55-03:01) then drums (03:02-03:24) before the fade.